GoodReads – website review

I’ve been using GoodReads for quite a while now to track the books I read and keep tabs on what my friends are reading. I’m not really sure how I came across this site, but I like it and most of my friends have a GoodReads account. I had signed up for LibraryThing, but never got around to updating it. It felt a little clumsy to me, when searching for titles. With Goodreads, you can type in the author, and see all the books associated with that author, then just go down the list and add books, (or just rate it) without having to re-enter the author’s name each time to go to another book (something that keeps happening to me on LibraryThing). I do like that LibraryThing lets you do half stars, I can’t do that with GoodReads.

Other than the ease of adding books to my list and organizing the lists, there really isn’t much of a difference between the two. When I signed up for GoodReads, LibraryThing still had a cap on the number of titles on the shelf, whereas GoodReads is unlimited and free. Its also easier to view other people’s bookshelves and be able to add titles to your own bookshelf when browsing.

My favorite part is being able to divide up lists into various categories. I have a “To-Read” list, a “Currently Reading” list, and various subject headings that I can stick titles under. There are thousands of groups for tons of topics, a section for authors that are GoodReads members, (I friended Paulo Coelho). I also joined the Rory Gilmore Book Club on GoodReads. The forum is always active and the posts are actually well thought out and insightful.

I have accounts on both sites, and I’ll most likely keep both accounts. Its always nice having more than 1 online resource for something like this. Used together, they kind of balance each other out. I like that LibraryThing is more library/librarian focused, but I think GoodReads is easier to use.